Two women accused of killing a 26-year-old woman by giving her a fatal dose of silicone to enlarge her buttocks in 2019 had seen the unlicensed procedure turn deadly before, prosecutors argued in court.
Libby Adame, 53, and Alicia Galaz, 25, both of Riverside, are on trial in the death of Karissa Rajpaul, who died shortly after a mother and daughter injected themselves with silicone at a home in Sherman Oaks.
Rajpaul, of Los Angeles, began to lose consciousness after the procedure, but LAPD said Adame and Galaz fled the scene, leaving paramedics unaware that Rajpaul had undergone a dangerous cosmetic surgery.
“As a result, the victim died in the emergency room with attending physicians unaware of the silicone injection,” police said at the time of their arrest.
On Tuesday, prosecutors told jurors that the two defendants had seen such dangerous injections become fatal before. The Los Angeles Daily News reported.
About a year before Rajpaul’s death, prosecutors said, Adame and Galaz were seen on security camera footage in the parking lot behind a salon on South Gate as paramedics rushed through the front door to treat a another woman who had lost consciousness after an injection. .
Rescuers tried unsuccessfully to revive the woman, Karina Arias, Deputy District Governor. Atty. Lee Cernok told the jury.
It is unclear why no charges were filed in this death. Shernock told the court that the Arias case was under investigation when investigators learned of Rajpaul’s death.
Cernok said that despite knowing the risks, the mother and daughter have been doing the procedure for about a decade, gaining a following on social media.
“They kept going and going and going, to make money,” Cernok said, according to the Daily News.
Attorneys for Adame and Galaz, meanwhile, argued Tuesday that silicone injections used to enlarge the buttocks are not illegal in California and called the fatal incident an accident.
Marco Gianuzzi, Rajpaul’s husband, testified Tuesday that the defendants performed the procedure on his wife a total of three times, including the fatal incident in 2019.
Gianuzzi, the Daily News reported, said he knew about the first two procedures, but his wife hid the third from him because she knew he objected.
The two women have been charged with one count of murder and three counts of practicing medicine without a license.
The dangerous procedure has become more popular in recent years, leading to other deaths.
In May 2023, Vivian Alexandra Gomez was extradited from Florida to California to face charges of involuntary manslaughter and practicing medicine without a valid license after allegedly injecting silicone into a social media model known for her resemblance to Kim Kardashian.
Court records show Gomez’s case is still pending.
With silicone buttock injections increasing in popularity, the US Food and Drug Administration has issued warnings against them, reminding people that they are not FDA approved.
“Silicone injections can lead to long-term pain, infections and serious injuries, including scarring and permanent disfigurement, embolism (blockage of a blood vessel), stroke and death. agency he said.
The FDA warns consumers not to buy fillers online or have liquid silicone injected into their bodies by unlicensed providers in non-medical settings.
